Strangely, my last Postie attempt posted as a comment and not a regular post. I fiddled with the cron-less options several times to see if this was just an error or something that Postie is reading in the subject line. In any case I will try regular posting to see if it works. Currently Postie is set to retrieve emails every 10 minutes.
Seed my Valentine
The Burpee order arrived yesterday bringing a packet each of the Lady in Red Salvia and Dianthus Valentine. I proceeded to put out 6 Valentine seeds into the growing system. I believe I will sow the Lady in Red Salvia in 3″ pots, given the vigor of these “Texas” or Scarlet sages. Now, all that are left to arrive are the columbines, petunias and ice plant seeds from Swallowtail Gardens.
I thinned some pepper and Thai basil seedlings that I discovered that had doubled up, including the ones I intentionally increased, namely the Thai chili peppers. I am testing the hardiness of two by putting them outside the growing system into a 3″ pot. Technically, I should leave the seedling cells uncovered now, since most of them are putting out their 2nd set of leaves
Meanwhile, I was investigating the dinner trays and thinning some of the impatiens seeds. The impatiens flat needs a vent hole in the dome. Last year’s seeding venture has taught me to expect some sprouting within 7-10 days, if conditions are right. Unlike the fast-growing annuals: one of the alyssum trays is already showing 2 sprouters the 3rd day after sowing. If I had to guess, I would think the white alyssum were the first, being more vigorous than colored alyssum.
However, the biggest surprise was to find a pansy seedling. It’s been 15 days since sowing and I had seen nary a root until this morning. One of the cells hid a sprout, which I discovered while trying to home a chili seedling. So there is hope yet.
More sowing to come!
Demoing Drupal
I’ve noticed a posting on a job site recently advertising for Drupal experience. This motivated me to setup a Drupal install on the server to play around with it for a bit. Something that caught my eye in the documentation on Drupal was the intention to make Drupal server-independent. So I am looking forward to testing Drupal in an IIS setting, something that WordPress isn’t fully integrated with yet.
Of course, this argument is nullified by IIS7’s use of Web App Gallery, which I had managed to test on Server 2008. My understanding is that WPI easily installs most of the common web application packages available today, including WordPress, Drupal and Joomla.
I am curious to learn which setup will ultimately lead to the best CMS. There are many arguments currently out on the web extolling the virtues of Drupal, WordPress and Joomla; but it takes time to experience each of them.
More seed sowing
I checked the mailbox earlier today in discovered I received my Park’s package. Yay, more seeds! I took a quick trip to the Lewisville Home Depot in search of some seedling flat trays, but all I walked out with were 2 packages of Burpee growing pellets and 20 feet of garden fencing. Thankfully, my honey picked up a spray bottle for me earlier in the day, so I can mist the alyssum and impatiens trays.
Also, I had earlier shaken some seeds out of the purple pastel salvia greggii sitting potted up in the garden and placed 2 of them into a 3″ pot. I still had plenty of aluminum cake pans to tap, and so proceeded to get some more 3″ pots into them, including the 2 rooted asters I brought indoors. I’m minded to browse the white salvia in the salvia row for some more seeds. I realize that salvia greggii may not always come true from seed, but I think this will be a good experiment to see how well they germinate.
So, to sum up, I sowed 12 21st Century Blue Star Phlox and 1 row of 6 Blue Knoll Chrysanthemum seeds in the Burpee grow system. Both packages had an expiration date, and the Blue Knoll was marked as “low germination” so I’m crossing my fingers to see what the results will be.
I will hold off another week before I sow the marigolds and the vincas, since my focus for now is on cool season annuals such as phlox, alyssum, and impatiens. Meanwhile, I eagerly await the rest of my seed orders…from Burpee and Swallowtail Gardens. My live plant orders from Delaware however have been delayed due to inclement weather.
I ♥ violas
Aside from the ornamental kale, dianthus and the lone felicia, the only cool weather color in my gardens are supplied by violas. The blooms come and go in waves, and today, the red and white violas shine the brightest in an otherwise dreary flower bed.
I’ve determined that the white violas may not be Penny series after all. They came labeled as Rocky Pure White; however, the closest determination I’ve made on the vivid red violas is Arkwright Ruby or Penny Red Blotch. However, none of the pictures I’ve seen compare to the bright red and gold-rimming of my garden specimens. I have to assume however, that coming from Strong’s Nursery, that it is likely a Penny series viola.
The only Sorbets displaying color are in the gardenia bed; as usual, the Orange Duets perform the best, constantly in flower. I had occasion to find a Coconut Swirl here and there, but it seems the Sorbets (Black Duets, Blue Heavens and the Swirls) are taking a brief respite.
